Opening Principles

The three goals of the opening

The opening in International Draughts is not about winning material; it is almost impossible to lose a piece in the first ten moves unless you actively blunder. Instead, the opening has three purposes, in roughly this order of importance:

1. Control the centre. The centre squares (roughly 27, 28, 23, 24) influence more of the board than any other squares. The player who occupies them with pieces that are not easy to evict controls the tempo of the game.
2. Develop a flexible structure. A structure is "flexible" if you have several equally good moves available at any given turn. A rigid structure is one where only one move avoids a disadvantage — you have lost the initiative.
3. Avoid weak squares. A "weak" square is one where, if an opposing piece ever lands on it, you cannot chase it off. Cede too many weak squares in the opening and you spend the middlegame fighting a passive position.

The first move: 32-28 or 33-29?

The overwhelming majority of serious games begin with White's 32-28 or 33-29, advancing a single piece to the edge of the centre. Both are sound. The practical difference is mostly stylistic: 32-28 often leads to more classical, symmetrical games, while 33-29 more often invites sharper play. Other first moves (31-26, 31-27) are legal but concede the centre too readily and are rare in master play.

One useful warning for beginners: opening names in draughts usually describe families of structures, not a single forced move order. You are learning plans and piece placements, not memorising chess-style traps.

The Classical system

The Classical system is the oldest and most instructive opening structure. Both sides advance centrally and symmetrically, often exchanging a pair of pieces in the middle rows early on. After the exchange, both players build broad, connected chains of pieces supporting each other along the diagonals. Neither side creates obvious weaknesses, and both sides retain many reasonable continuations. This is where most beginners should start their study — the plans are clear, the tactical noise is low, and the positions that arise teach the fundamental principles of structure and activity better than any book chapter.

The Roozenburg

Named after Dutch world champion Piet Roozenburg, this is not one exact line but a well-known attacking formation. White builds a supported advanced man on one wing and uses it as a long-term space-gaining wedge. The point is not an immediate tactic; it is to restrict Black's structure and create a position White understands better.

The Springer

The Springer ("jumper" in Dutch) revolves around an advanced outpost man deep in enemy territory. That piece can be a source of enormous pressure if it is supported correctly, but it can also become a tactical target. The resulting positions are more concrete than in quiet classical play: both sides must calculate accurately.

Strong players love the Springer because it forces concrete thinking from move one. Beginners should meet it but not adopt it until their tactics are solid.

The Ghestem

Named after the French champion and analyst Pierre Ghestem, this opening family is characterised by early asymmetry. One side accepts an imbalanced central structure in return for activity and chances on the flanks. The resulting positions are less about memorising theory and more about handling imbalance without creating tactical holes.

Games in the Ghestem often feature one side attacking on the left and the other on the right simultaneously. Material exchanges can leave bizarre piece distributions that don't look balanced but in fact are. Study it to broaden your feel for asymmetric positions.

Tempo: the hidden language of the opening

Every quiet move changes the "tempo count" — a measure of how far forward your pieces collectively sit. If your tempo count is higher, you are the aggressor: your pieces are deeper, and you are threatening to convert. If it is lower, you are defending. Skilled players manipulate tempo by offering exchanges that leave them with more pieces advanced than their opponent — gaining tempo — or by declining exchanges that would cost tempo. You don't need to count tempo consciously when you are starting out, but you will begin to feel it after a hundred games or so.

Practical advice for the first 100 games

Don't memorise long lines. Instead:

• Pick one opening for White (the Classical is perfect) and one response for Black against 32-28 and 33-29. Play only those for twenty games.
• After each loss, find the move where the position became hard. Nine times out of ten it was in the middlegame, not the opening.
• Resist the urge to attack early. Most attacking ideas that work in 8×8 checkers fail on the 10×10 board because Black has too much room to consolidate.